Republican Party, Iran, Kermit the Frog: Your Tuesday Briefing

The party now turns its attention to the budget: A House committee unveiled a plan this morning that would reduce tax rates and simplify the tax code.

• At the White House.

President Trump agreed on Monday to certify again that Iran was complying with an international nuclear agreement that he has strongly criticized as a bad deal.

The president also defended his son’s meeting last year with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was politics as usual.

And on Monday, Mr. Trump said, “We’ve signed more bills — and I’m talking about through the legislature — than any president, ever.” He hasn’t.

We asked the government’s departing top ethics official for his assessment of the administration. His answer: “I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.” Here are his recommendations.

• South Korea proposes talks with the North.

Pyongyang did not immediately respond to the offer to discuss military and humanitarian issues, which would represent Seoul’s first visible split with Washington.

The Trump administration has said it will deal with North Korea’s missile tests by increasing sanctions and military pressure.

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• California’s housing crisis.

The median cost of a home in the state is now $500,000 — twice the national cost — threatening the economy and quality of life.

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Housing prices in San Francisco and in some other cities in California have jumped as much as 75 percent over the past five years.Credit
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

• After decades of war, a new test: peace.

Colombia’s rebels have disarmed and joined the government to wean farmers from illicit coca crops.

But the lure of drug money remains strong.

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A farmer in La Florida, Colombia, checking cacao pods on her four hectares of land. The government is encouraging farmers to grow crops like cacao instead of coca.Credit
Juan Arredondo for The New York Times

• “The Daily,” your audio news report.

In today’s show, we discuss the future of Republican efforts to overhaul health care.

Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

Business

• Tens of thousands of people who took out private loans to pay for college but have not been able to keep up payments may get their debts wiped away because crucial paperwork is missing.

• The performer who voiced Kermit the Frog for 27 years engaged in a war of words with Disney executives, calling his dismissal “a betrayal.” Disney painted a different picture.

• U.S. stocks were mixed on Monday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

Smarter Living

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

• Traveling soon? Here are six packing tips.

• If you’ve yet to master roast chicken, we have you covered.

Noteworthy

• Not just an object, an experience.

In today’s 360 video, explore the newest wing of Tate Modern in London, where you’re encouraged to interact with the art.

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At the Tate Modern, Art and Play

Explore the newest wing of the Tate Modern in London, where experiential work encourages museumgoers to interact with the art.

Writers from across the political spectrum discuss how well the government is working, and the news of the week.

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• “I wanted to be so thin I would disappear.”

Prompted by the new Netflix film “To the Bone,” more than 1,200 readers shared with us their experiences of eating disorders.

We collected some of the comments, and invite you to submit questions for a Facebook Live Q. and A. today at 7 p.m. Eastern.

• Please replace your contacts.

After a woman reported a strange sensation in her right eye, doctors discovered that she was wearing 27 contact lenses.

• Winter is here.

With the return of “Game of Thrones,” we’ve started an email newsletter with exclusive interviews and explainers. We published the first installment today; you can sign up here.

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The premiere of the seventh season of “Game of Thrones” was shown this morning at a subway station in Moscow.Credit
Vasily Maximov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

• In memoriam.

George Romero, a horror visionary, created the zombie genre with his 1968 film, “Night of the Living Dead.” He was 77. Our movie critics discussed his legacy.

• Best of late-night TV.

Seth Meyers returned to “Late Night” on Monday and caught up with some recent comments from the White House.

• Quotation of the day.

“We are living on borrowed time.”

— Kelly Falkner, director of polar programs at the National Science Foundation, referring to the likelihood of research at McMurdo Station in Antarctica being shut down.

Continue reading the main story

Back Story

Some images are so striking that they stay with you. The photograph that has entered online lore as the first to be posted on the World Wide Web is on the quirkier side.

The web was in its infancy 25 years ago when its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, asked a colleague at the European Organization for Nuclear Research for a photo he could use.

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This photograph of a musical group is thought to be the first posted on the World Wide Web.Credit
Cernettes, via YouTube

The picture he was given was of Les Horribles Cernettes, an all-woman doo-wop musical group that took its name from CERN, the acronym for the organization on the French-Swiss border with which the members were all associated.

With a fan base of physicists, the group’s songs tended toward the scientific: “Strong Interaction,” “Surfing on the Web” and “Microwave Love.”

Although it’s impossible to say for sure if the photograph was, in fact, the first to be posted online, it was an early step in the transformation of a communication system that scientists used into the internet we know today.

A British newspaper interviewed some of the group’s members 20 years after the picture was taken. “It is quite funny that now, with Facebook and blogging, that sort of picture is commonplace on the web,” one said. “It was just girls being girls. We were asked to ‘strike a pose,’ and we did.”

Lauren Hard contributed reporting.

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